DOWNTOWN CRASH

Hamilton police arrested a 30-year-old American man at gunpoint when he refused to stop for them after they found his car smashed into a pole near a downtown intersection.

The man drove off while officers were attempting to talk to him Tuesday morning on King Street West, near Bay Street, with one wheel missing from his car.

He scared officers when he drove at first on to the sidewalk, but police quickly had his car boxed in a block west at King and Caroline streets. The incident stretched over 15 minutes, around 10:30 a.m.

The man was taken to hospital before being held in police custody overnight. Police say charges are expected.

“The police approached him and then he drove off,” Staff Sergeant Emidio Evangelista said Tuesday night. “They thought, ‘What's up? Is he wanted?' At this point, we don't know why he took off.

“No one seems to know why he did this.”

The 2012 black Chevrolet Malibu has Illinois plates. It is a rental from an Enterprise Rent-a-Car lot in Lombard, a suburb just west of Chicago.

King Street resident Mark Lewis said he looked out a window to find police pointing guns at a battered vehicle around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.

“I heard yelling, then some crashes, and I look out (the window) and I see a bunch of police with their guns out, yelling at this car,” said Lewis, who lives above a store.

“It kind of looked like they'd forced this car off the road … They were smashing out the (side) windows,” he said.

Stoney Creek resident Willard Clark had just parked his vehicle and was putting money into the meter when he turned and saw police and the black sedan.

Clark said police repeatedly asked the man to get out of the car, but he would not comply.

“So they finally broke the window — they had the gun drawn on him,” he said.